Alan
Monroe - Oglala LakotaLakota Ledger-Style
Art HK Item #LA33

Alan Monroe creates his
Northern Plains artwork from hides, stone, leather, and wood. He learned the basics
of quill working, weaponry, sculpting and pipe making from traditional and contemporary
artisans in his family circle. He is a fifth generation pipe maker and considered
by many to be a master pipe maker. In his sculptures, Monroe works with a variety
of materials such as pipestone, bone, wood and alabaster. He creates small objects
like fetishes to large pieces than can weigh hundreds of pounds. Al Monroe's work
can be seen in many galleries and museums across the country and he has won many
awards. Al Monroe was born in Hot Springs , South Dakota and is an enrolled member
of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He graduated from Hot Springs High School and studied
business and art in Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Dakota.

Ledger art evolved from Plains
Indian hide painting. Traditionally Plains tribes decorated tipis, leggings, buffalo
robes, shields and other clothing items with depictions of life events. The figures
were usually drawn with a hard, dark outline and then filled in with color. The
painting was done with bone or wood sticks that were dipped in naturally-occurring
pigments.

The women of the tribes often made designs
while the men depicted scenes of war, hunting, other personal feats or historic
events. Besides battles, the changing lifestyle of the Plains Indians and infusion
of Euro-Americans was documented in the art - trains, covered wagons, guns, and
even cameras.

Ledger
art began in the 1860s and continued to the 1930s and is experiencing a revival
with a few contemporary Lakota artists today. It is called ledger art because
instead of the paintings being on buffalo hides (which became scarce with the
near extinction of the vast buffalo herds) the drawings were done on paper, often
ledger book paper that was discarded by government agents, military officers,
traders or missionaries. In addition to the new paper format, Plains artists also
had access to pencils, pens, crayons and watercolor paints.

At right is an 1884 crayon ledger drawing by Lakota artist Red Dog honoring the
valor of a warrior named Low Dog.

Noted
Lakota artists include Black Hawk and Sitting Bull. Black Hawk, in an effort to
feed his family during the very harsh winter of 1880-81, agreed to draw a series
of 76 pieces of art for an Indian trader that depicted one of
Black Hawk's visions. He was paid 50 cents a drawing. That book of 76 drawings
sold in 1994 for nearly $400,000 dollars. Although not technically ledger art
since the drawings were on plain paper, not ledger paper, Black Hawk's work are
one of the finest examples of that style of Lakota art. Two examples of that series
are shown here.